Home / British consultancy support helps world's largest education project

Release

14 November 2006

British consultancy support helps world's largest education project

The Chinese Ministry of Education and Britain’s Department for
International Development (DFID) have launched one of the world’s
largest education projects – the £27 million Southwest Basic
Education Project (SBEP) aimed at improving education for more than
1.6m children – especially girls - in 27 of China’s poorest
counties in four of the poorest provinces: Guangxi, Guizhou,
Sichuan and Yunnan. Two British consultancy organisations –
Cambridge Education (part of the Mott MacDonald group) and the
British Council – are providing support through a team of British
and Chinese experts.

Andy Brock, general manager of Cambridge Education, China and team
leader of the partnership team said: ‘Cambridge Education and the
British Council are proud to be working with the Chinese government
on this flagship project. The DFID approach of providing high
quality specialist support has already proved effective in other
parts of China. This project has the chance to make a significant
impact on the lives of some of the poorest children in China.
British education expertise will have a critical role to play in
making that happen.’

China’s rapid development has been uneven between the east of the
country and the west – consequently, many counties in the southwest
region are lagging behind. The support from the Southwest Basic
Education Project will focus on improving the Ministry of
Education’s own programmes to achieve universal basic education in
these poor areas.

Michael O’Sullivan, Regional Director British Council, China said:
‘Our aim is to work in partnership with the Chinese government to
provide the best British expertise in the education field. We hope
this project will be a showcase for the partnership between our two
countries.’

The Southwest Basic Education project will aim to increase
enrolment in poor minority areas and improve teaching and
management quality in some of the remotest schools in the country.
Altogether the project will cover more than 8,000 schools and over
77,000 teachers.